


Negative Thinking

by Ammendi



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Drug Addiction, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:55:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26127607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ammendi/pseuds/Ammendi
Summary: AU - Annie's been in her internship for a while working at the local hospital, a necessary step in achieving her dream of hospital administration. However, maybe her dream isn't quite what she'd imagined. Overworked and Underpaid, Annie falls back to her eighteen-year-old ways.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	1. Punitive Damages

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say can be used against you in court of law. You have the right to an attorney."

_This can't be happening._

"...You have the right for your attorney do be present during questioning."

_No...no no no no_

"...If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."

An uncomfortable dizziness builds, threatening to overwhelm her, the world around her spins, she’s barely able to register the words addressed, half believing and very much hoping this is just some sick prank.

"...Should you wish to answer any questions in the absence of an attorney, you have the right to stop answering at any time."

 _This isn't happening_. She feels lightheaded, a strong surge of wooziness overcomes her as her knees started trembling under her tiny frame. Her blood pounds in her ears along and she feels sick to her stomach, the feeling exacerbated by an uncomfortable burning rising in her chest. She wants to run. She wants to turn back to her room, hide under the covers and stay there forever. 

"Miss?"

She hears the officer's voice but doesn’t respond, can't respond, a state of shock enveloping her.

"Miss? Do you understand?"

She managed to blink a few times, an attempt to clear the tears that began to pool in her ducts and finally nodded meekly towards the man.

"Yes." She finally responded in a high register, a significant tremble in her voice.

"Good, this way ma'am."

She remains silent as the officer escorts her to his vehicle.

## Three months ago

It had passed 2am before Annie had finally got some sleep the previous night, between yet another late-night attempting to catch up on paperwork and helping Abed through his biyearly daylight savings meltdown, she’d got home late, exhausted and only just remembered to set her alarm before passing out in bed.

Annie awoke wearily from her slumber, wincing as she was met with a splitting pain throbbing at her temple as she attempted to open her eyes. An uncomfortable heat burned her skin as the sheet clung to her sweat clad body. It felt like the start of a cold, but Annie wasn’t one to let that stop her, she forced herself to rise to a seating position and checked her phone, alarm still having not gone off. _Flat_. She sighed heavily as she looked over to the far wall to see her clock.

8:38am.

“No. No, no no no” she repeated to herself as a feeling of panic began to rise in her chest, she had to be in work in 20 minutes, there was no way she would make it there on time now. She winced once again as she clambered out of bed and toward the shower, holding her head in a fruitless attempt at soothing the headache that persisted.

After hurriedly dressing following a less than relaxing shower, she was out of the door, forgoing her usual oat filled breakfast and much of her morning beauty routine. It was an almost thirty-five-minute drive to the hospital, near the centre of Denver, and it was already after nine.

Annie deemed herself lucky to get such a coveted intern position at the hospital, it was perfect for her career in hospital administration, a direct assistant to the hospital administrator herself. Yes, the pay wasn’t particularly great, and she’d have made more as a store clerk, but this was a vital step in what she wanted, a full-time position with the hospital. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been quite as interesting as she’d hoped, and although it was typically supposed to be ‘9 to 5’ it had developed more regularly into ‘9 to god knows how late’ in order to keep up with the paperwork regularly dumped on her from hospital staff. Still, this was a perfect position for her, she couldn’t complain, right?

She didn't make it to work until 9:45am.

The building was large, three major sections distinct from the outside, the entrance, modern with an architecturally pleasing mix of white cladding and blue-tinted glass, fronted with a bold placard. The middle section predating and stands significantly taller than its attached neighbour, a large rectangular block that housed the main wards and the administration offices. And finally, the rear section, standing shorter at just two floors, she hadn't been in the third and rear section of the building, being reserved predominately for the older and more long-term patients.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she repeats as she walks into her supervisor's office, now almost fifty minutes late.

Frankie wore a stern expression as she often did, she was reasonably easy to work with as long as things were going well however often took a stricter approach with whom she deemed to produce unsatisfactory results, thankfully Annie had never really been on that side of her. She was a well-dressed and professional woman that was mostly well respected by the other staff. Annie couldn't help but make comparisons between Frankie and herself and hoped she would become more like her as her career progressed, although she did doubt, she'd ever give up on her colourful side.

“This is unacceptable, you start at nine AM sharp, it’s almost ten! I expect better of you Miss Edison.” 

“I know, I’m really sorry. It’s just my alarm, and then… sorry. I promise this won’t happen again.” She replied looking down at the floor, avoiding Frankie’s glare.

“Fine. But make sure you’ve finished everything before leaving today.”

“Of course, thank you Miss. Dart. Sorry again!” She squeaked before heading down the hall to her office. ‘Office’ was a generous term for where Annie had to work really, it felt more like a storage cupboard that somebody had forced a desk and chair into, it required a little athletic prowess in order to clamber of the desk to the chair and some delicacy not to disrupt the small tower of paperwork that sat dangerously close to its edge. Some windows, more room and no mouldy aroma would have been nice, however Annie was thankful to have a quiet area to work.

A few hours passed as Annie attempted to reduce the paperwork tower, but even with an abundance of coffee she felt her tiredness creep up on her. She sat back to rest her eyes a moment ready to continue shortly, but quickly drifted off, head hanging over the back of her chair.  
She wasn’t sure how long had passed when she was jolted awake by a loud knock. Before she had chance to respond however, the door swung open, stopping abruptly as it hit the edge of the desk, causing a few sheets to tumble on to the floor.

“Good, intern girl, got some paperwork that needs to be done pronto. Need it on Nurses’ station before first thing” He says quickly, looking intensely at her.

“Actual…” she began to respond before he interrupted.

"Great, here." He says as he places a folder down at the edge of the desk with a thud, causing the other stack of papers to wobble precariously, before turning and exiting without another word.

Once out of ear shot, she let out a large sigh and stretched over the desk to close the door he'd left open in his wake. Unfortunately, that was not an uncommon occurrence for Annie, many of the doctors had treated her as an assistant to the whole floor, knowing fully that it was not her responsibility, however at least the majority of them did so with some resemblance of respect. That couldn’t be said for Dr. Kingly however, whom had piled on more work than any other and had seldom shown appreciation for her efforts. If she wasn’t so desperate to impress those at the hospital, she would have turned all the additional work down, but if this is the price of a full position, she would hold her mouth and get through it.

After a few hours of peace, and ignoring increasingly loud stomach grumbles from a skipped lunch, she managed to complete her original paperwork. Just as she was sorting out a few folders to be taken down to the administration office, the door swung open abruptly.

“Annie, it’s almost 4:30, why hasn’t the new inventory been sorted out for the supply cabinet.” Frankie said sternly.

She’d been so caught up in getting on top of the paperwork that she’d completely forgotten about that, “Sorry! I’ll do it now, I got held up finishing this” she gestured with the folder in her hand.

“It should have been done hours ago. This isn’t like you Annie… Just get it done.” She replied before turning around swiftly, shutting the door behind her.

Her smiling façade quickly faded as the door closed, desperately wanting to lay her head on the desk and sleep for 12 hours. _You’re Annie Edison, you can do this, it’s just a quick inventory, then a little more paperwork, then you’re home. You don’t shy away from hard work, you can do this._ she reassured herself with a pep talk, begging her eyes to stay open. She crawled under the desk and headed to the supply cabinet.

With a key borrowed from Frankie, she unlocked the cabinet, tucked away in one of the side rooms behind the nurses’ station, and began to sort through the new pharmaceutical order slowly and carefully, arranging them by expiry date and ticking them off on the inventory sheet. She continued at a slow but methodical pace, making sure her sleep deprived state didn’t elicit any mistakes. It was when she reached the last few items, she paused.

 _Four bottles, huh_ She thought to herself as she double checked the inventory list, once again confirming that only three bottles are listed.

She thought back to the work she still had to do before she could go home, it would take hours, and she’d reached a new level of exhaustion, even the scattered cardboard boxes were starting to look like a comfy bed. It would only take a couple of pills to wake her up right, nobody would even know, she’d get her work done and she’d be back home in no time. _Adderall, 3 bottles…_ , she just stood there, holding the additional bottle in her hand, minutes went by as she considered it before being started as a few nurses returned to their station, thankfully too engrossed in conversation to notice her odd behaviour through the open door. 

After placing the three bottles and signing off the inventory sheet, she cleaned up the area and wrapped up the bottle in a few loose bits of paper in an attempt to conceal it. She peered out of the room slowly to check that nobody was around before skulking slowly towards her office, peering around repeatedly, in hindsight this was far more suspicious than just walking to her office normally.

On returning to her office, she closed her door and locked it, checking the handle far too many times to confirm that, yes, it is indeed. At her desk she placed the bottle before her, staring at it once more. She’d had issues in the past with Adderall which had cost her scholarship and her family, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly, this was an easy way to keep on top of her work, get back in Frankie’s good graces and get home to sleep as soon as possible. Her eyes felt heavy, she was passing exhaustion and moving toward a state of deliriousness. 

_This was it._

_Just this once, and that’s it._

_Okay_

She swallowed once hard before popping open the bottle and removing two pills and taking them hastily with a sip from her water bottle. She slumped forward shortly after, head on her desk, hair cascading raggedly over her shoulders, creating a look far removed from her normal, well put together appearance. 

It wasn’t long before she began to feel the Adderall take effect, the tiredness waning and her ability to concentrate returned readily, a resurgence of energy built as time went on. She began to remember how good it had felt all those years ago, the intense focus and energy it gave her.

After rushing through the paperwork at about twice her usual rate and with just as much accuracy, she was done. And after placing Dr. Kingly's, now completed, paperwork at the nurses’ station, she gathered her things and left her office.

She arrived home just after 8:00pm and still bursting with energy, she felt more awake than she had in months. After cooking, cleaning the whole apartment, re-organising her notes; wardrobe; kitchen; bookshevles and sorting through all her old study notes, she finally lay down on her bed at two in the morning. Still, wide, awake.

It wasn't for another 90 minutes of reading through numerous textbooks and wikipedia articles that the effects finally began to wear off and the enormity of what she had done had hit her.

All that time sober.

All the challenges she overcame.

What her friends would think of her.

She was weak.

She was worthless.

She cried for hours before passing out in her bed. She took her first sick day since she was eighteen the next day, unable to deal with ‘that place’ just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've taken some 'creative liberties' with the legal process and details of how hospitals are run, that is to say, I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm making it up. Feel free to suggest some corrections if something doesn't make sense and I'll do my best :)
> 
> Thanks for reading, not sure how often I'll be able to update but I'll do what I can.


	2. Criminal Preliminaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie is left in the interrogation room. Troy and Abed want to help.

A mild but unpleasant damp aroma permeated the dimly lit interrogation room. Its drab grey walls featureless aside a single black door to the far-right wall and a large mirror at her rear which she presumed was see-through from the other side. She sat upon a cold and uncomfortable metal chair with her arms resting out in front of her on a wooden table, the handcuffs seemed unnecessary and only served to heighten her discomfort. Thirty minutes had passed since she’d been placed in the room and left to stew.

Following her breakdown at high school, she’d found herself in a similar situation, however before she’d been treated with a semblance of empathy, just some lost girl that made a mistake, a juvenile that needed help but not punishment. She knew this would be different, the leniency before would not be granted to get adult self, not to mention the whole situation was a little more complicated this time. Given that this was technically a second offense, the likelihood of no criminal charges and mandatory rehab somehow didn’t seem likely. The deep pit of anxiety continued to grow as she waited, going through every possible scenario for when the officers returned finally, she was starting to sound like Abed.

Two officers finally entered the room breaking her thoughts, she recognised the first man as the supporting officer from her arrest, fairly short, thin and dressed in a typical uniform. The second was an older man, presumably late fifties, marginally overweight with a gruff beard, he was dressed significantly less formally than his associate, a simple jeans and shirt with a badge dangling from a small chain around his neck. The younger man remained quiet as the detective spoke.

“Miss Edison, we can have all of this over within the hour and you can be back at home sipping a sweet rosé before you know it. Just need a few answers from you first” He spoke in a calm, almost reassuring tone as the men sat across from her at the table.

She didn’t speak, simply responding with a chaste nod.

“Okay great, seeing as we all just want to get home here, let’s not beat around the bush. When did you first take the amphetamines from the pharmaceutical cabinet?”

Thankfully through countless movies and police dramas that Troy and Abed had made her watch, she knew what her best option was, turns out TV can be useful sometimes. Saying anything now could be taken as an admission of guilt. She wanted to reply calmly but ended up spurting out her words a little too quickly. “Lawyer, I… uhh… I want a lawyer”

His voice had developed a slight agitation to start but he’d quickly recovered to his previous tone of reassurance. “There’s no need for that Miss Edison, we’re just having a friendly chat. Attorney’s tend to make things a little more… complicated. Let’s get through these quickly and you’ll be home in no time ma’am.”

She shook her head, avoiding their gaze.

“I want a lawyer please” she reiterated, if she was going to get through this, a lawyer was her best shot.

The man stared intently at her for a few moments with an unreadable expression, she presumed it was some sort of intimidation tactic but she remained quiet and looked straight ahead. He sighed loudly, realising that she’d be saying no more for now, and leant over towards his partner to whisper something to him, she only managed to make out the word ‘useless’, the other man nodded and gestured toward the door.

“Very well, lawyer it is.” The detective said plainly as they both stood and headed towards the exit, pausing at the doorframe and looking back over his shoulder.

“Sit tight Miss, there’s a good chance you’ll be spending the night, public defenders aren’t known for their late work hours. Let us know if you want to speed things up.” He finished with a smirk, remaining stationary for a moment, tapping the wood of the doorframe a few times before leaving.

Annoyingly there was no clock in the room and all she could see through the small window at the top of the door was a blank corridor wall, she wasn’t sure how long it’d been since she’d be left there but it was starting to feel like hours. Her worries had subsidised and resurged countless times and the only useful thing she remembered from a single law guest lecture back at Greendale was ‘shut up and get a good lawyer’, at least she doing the lawyer part, although she thought ‘good’ might be a stretch for free legal counsel.

Her confidence in the public defender wasn’t exactly fortified as he entered the room, overfilled folder in hand, studying a page intently as if he’d just been handed it. He wore an old grey suit which sported a few small tears on the lapel and an unsavoury stain on the right sleeve, his tie had been loosened and top button appeared to be missing. He didn’t look up once as he made his way to the chair and sat down across from Annie. 

“Just… one minute” he mumbled, dropping the folder with a thud and continuing to read, using his finger to mark the page. “Right, here we are. Attempted theft and public indecency, wow… trying to rob a library in the nude with a water gun, that’s bold. Well, I’m not one to judge.”

"What!?" She squeaked, probably a little louder than necessary but the man didn’t appear to react, still looking down at the paper before shuffling through a few others in the folder.

“Wait, right yeh okay. Wrong file.” He finally said after a short moment, shuffling a few papers and finally looking up at her. With a small chuckle “Oh, oops, I can’t say you look like a, Mr.Chang, uhh, remind me who you are?”

"Miss Edison" She responded with a flat tone, and more than a hindrance of annoyance.

“Ah right, right. This is the one” He replied, pulling out a few stapled sheet from the folder and laying them on the desk. He continued “Huh, well not much better. Theft of medical products, possession charge, destruction of property and, uhh” turning over the page, “third degree assault. Quite the collection there Miss Edison.” He finished with a chuckle which annoyed Annie further.

She bit her cheek in an attempt to stop an outburst, this was her life he was talking about, treating it like some sort of game, this man is supposed to be helping her out of this mess and he looks like he can barely get dressed in the morning. His cheery tone angered her but she did well to hide it, shouting at your legal counsel isn’t exactly the greatest idea.

“Okay so… with the three, wait, four charges, you have a maximum penalty of…” He held the note and drummed the table with his fingers as if this was some big reveal on a gameshow, he skimmed across the page before him “…30 months jail time and what, eight, no, nine-thousand… ish… dollar fine.”

Although Annie had expected ‘prison’ to be on the table, she wasn’t exactly ready to hear it was a real possibility, she couldn’t accept that, even if she were to make it through the time, her career would be over and any chance of a success would be ruined. She struggled for air and a light-headedness overcame her, she was becoming quite familiar with the feeling unfortunately. 

He must have noticed her panicked expression as continued, “Calm down Miss, that’s a worst case scenario, it won’t be that bad”, which did help to relax her somewhat but she still sat motionless staring down at her hands. “You have some history here which won’t be in your favour, a little jail time is expected but I guess it won’t be more than six months, and don’t worry about the fine, it won’t be too much. Sound good?”

“You guess!” She stood up as she shouted across from him. She wasn’t accepting this, sure she could throw a decent right hook but prison, 5 foot 3 Annie Edison was supposed to be a Harvard graduate and a well-respected professional, not a community college graduate, an under-achieving intern and hardened criminal.

“Sorry miss you can’t expect much more than that”

“No. No, not sorry miss. You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“Calm down miss” He replied, gesturing with arms outstretched and palms down.

If there were a list of things not to say to get Annie to relax, saying ‘calm down’ was sure to near the top. She took a few breathes to stop herself making this situation even worse before replying with poorly hidden anger in her voice, “Get me my phone call”.

* * *

“Inspector, the Blorgons, they’ve infiltrated the time field! What do we do!”

"Constable, not to worry, they couldn't possibly make it through the temporal force-field"

"But look inspector!"

A mass of sparks erupted from the panel to the constable's right, a hot yellow line forming as an external beam sliced through the metal as if it was paper.

"Blimey! They've upgraded their weaponry!" The inspector shouted as they turned to run.

"We can’t fight them off. Where do we go now inspector!"

"Ah constable, the question is not where do we go, but when!" He replied with a smirk.

"This way. We ne... pause simulation" Abed finished as his phone began to ring, a quizzical expression on his face as he looked at the caller ID before answering, it'd been almost a month since they'd last spoken and over three since they’d met in person.

"Hi Annie"

Troy could hear a muffled response but couldn’t quite make out what Annie was saying, he instead watched Abed hoping to gauge his reaction, which can be difficult when that person rarely expresses emotion.

“Okay, I understand. I’m assuming you’re upset? It’s either that or constipated.”

“Knew it”

“Yes”

“Okay, we’re on it” He finished as he hung up the phone

“Abed?” Troy asked has he looked intently towards Abed. “What’s up with Annie?”

“She wouldn’t say much, just that she’s been arrested and needs a lawyer.”

“What? How? We need to go down there!” Troy replied frantically.

“She didn’t give me much information and no, she said not to, just to find her a ‘lawyer who wasn’t completely useless’” He replied, using his fingers for quotation marks.

“But we don’t know any lawyers? Plus, they’re expensive!” He said before a short pause, his face lit up as he continued “Wait! I could sell my brick; I’ve always wanted to go to a fancy auction!”

“She needs someone there tonight, and I have an idea.” He paused for dramatic effect.

“Dude, not the time” Troy scolded.

“Sorry. Pierce! He used to talk about being in a lawsuit every other month, it makes sense that he would have a lawyer on retainer.”

“Really? He’s not the most, uhh, generous of people”

“He can be, especially if it makes him feel wanted.” With a short pause he continued in a loud J. Jonah Jameson impression, “And we’re running out of options and the clocks ticking dammit! I want this sorted today. No, today’s too late I need this on my desk by yesterday!”

“On it!” Troy replied brightly, “What do I do”

Returning to his normal voice, Abed talked him through the plan, “last hope”, “owe him one”, “got it”. Troy ran to the kitchen rapidly to retrieve his phone and found Pierce’s contact.

"Troy! Good to hear from you old pal, now what can your best friend do for you?"

"Abed is-"

Pierce injected, cutting him off, "Forget about him, you’re too good for him anyway, you've got me now, where do we start, how does Vegas sound. I'll even get you a hooker or two."

"Pierce!" Troy replied, almost shouting to stop Pierce's rambling.

"I need your help."

"Of course, what was I thinking. I'll send you car to collect you in an hour."

"No! We need you to get us a lawyer, well, get Annie a lawyer"

"What, Annie needs a lawyer? About time she loosened up a little and broke a few laws, I'll head right over."

"Please, no. Could you just talk to a lawyer, a good one, that can help her. Abed said you have one on retriever right?" Pausing for a moment, with a wide-eyed expression for his moment of genius, looking towards Abed. “Dog lawyer, Ruffles, attorney at law.” 

Pierce interrupts him with a cough.

“Sorry, Annie, right.” Responding with a grimace at his own tangent.

"Well I’ve had a lawyer back since before I slept with Eartha Kitt in an airplane bathroom. I’ll see what I can do.”

"Thank you Pierce, I owe you one! Abed can give you the details" He winced a little as he realised he'd offered Pierce a favour, that had never gone down well in the past for him, but for Annie it was worth it.

He passed the phone to Abed who proceeded to divulge what little information Annie had told him before hanging up.

"So what do we do now Abed?"

"We've played our part for now; sure we’ll have some sort of recurring role later though."

Troy looked him with a quizzical expression before Abed simply followed up with, "Blorgons?"

"Blorgons. " He replied with a wide smile.

Abed nodded and they ran back into the grid-taped room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there is anything I need to fix. First time writing any fiction really (ignoring a single one-shot a month ago) so hopefully the writing will get better as I go on :) 
> 
> Thanks for reading <3.


End file.
